In Tuesday’s (6/18) Houston Chronicle, Steven Brown profiles Rossen Milanov, who is leading performances of young musicians in Mahler’s Seventh Symphony at the Texas Music Festival Orchestra this week. “I’ve always been imagining music with the ears of a singer,” says Milanov, who got his start in a children’s choir in his native Bulgaria. “Milanov studied both oboe and conducting at Bulgaria’s national conservatory. Just as he was graduating, the Soviet empire collapsed…. Milanov earned a master’s degree in oboe at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, then studied conducting at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and the Juilliard School in New York, which led to 11 years as assistant conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra. During part of his time there, the group was led by former Houston Symphony director Christoph Eschenbach. Milanov says Eschenbach was ‘an incredible example to follow and to watch work,’ especially in Mahler and other late-Romantic composers…. Milanov just finished his first season directing a group in northern Spain, the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias…. In the United States, Milanov leads Symphony in C, a New Jersey group that helps prepare budding professionals for orchestral careers. His role as a trainer is akin to what he’s doing this week at the Texas Music Festival.”
Posted June 19, 2013
